A view of yesterday, today and tomorrow -- the past, the present and the future

Monday, July 01, 2013

SOUTHWEST IS COOKIN' !

Comments here began to be moderated early this year which
had not previously been done on this blog as visitors may have noticed.Further comment screening efforts will regrettably
necessarily be initiated.

Anonymous spammers continue
to write unrelated or palavering general comments in an effort to piggyback
promotional and/or commercial web links soliciting readers to their site. Any
comment with such links generally never is accepted for publication.The
reality they fail to recognize is that if their often nonsensical language was allowed
to publish this would only serve to stigmatize their site as one that readers
would not want to visit, or certainly wouldn’t consider engaging with
for business purposes. So, they waste
their efforts.

Even though their leaching lingo never actually publishes on
the Internet, I have better things to do with my time than bothering with periodically
deleting their pollution from my computer.But the necessity of this process has served to dampen my personal
blogging enthusiasm which partially accounts for my decreased activity.

SOUTHWEST IS COOKIN’!

Weather is setting records for 3-digit temperatures in the
U. S.Southwest.Gradually increasing heat this past week
peaked at 104 F degrees the last day of June as we slowly begin our descent toward more
normal 2-digit numbers where I live in Southern California.We’re significantly below normal rain and snow
pack levels which has had our State at increased fire risk for several months
to a degree we typically don’t see until late summer into fall.

Fires are already burning in various California locales with
the yellowing smoke-filled clouds rolling above mountains north of me noted in
the sky on a recent afternoon.None
of California fires have been so tragic with lives lost as late news reports
tonight from Arizona in home-owner evacuated Yarnell, near Prescott (a favored
location of mine) north of Phoenix, where the wildfire took at least 19
firefighters lives as reported by the BBC.

Having lived in environs with dry heat and those with humid
heat I can attest to having more tolerance for dry heat in higher temperatures,
but hot is hot.When I heard Phoenix ,
Arizona had reached 120 F degrees yesterday, I was reminded when the top reading I had
experienced while living there years ago was 115 F degrees that I had concluded
then I wanted nothing hotter.

The hottest temperature ever recorded on earth is 134
F degrees.Death Valley’s temperature Sunday is
up for debate between 128 F degrees and 129.9 F degrees due to a difference in thermometer
readings but will be established later this Monday morning the Los AngelesTimes reports.

Those of us living in Southern California have been spared
any power shortages or outages so far as our summer begins.Alternative home energy sources are becoming more
cost effective.Currently we’re told
that solar roof panels may be viable if our monthly residential electric bill is $150 or
more.

Meanwhile for our electricity usage there are numerous
energy conservation practices recommended for businesses and individuals.Most residents routinely limit power usage
during the peak daytime heat periods including using our major appliances such
as washer, dryer, dishwasher only in the early morning or in the evening, keeping
our air conditioners at slightly higher settings.

Our nuclear power plant, San Onofre, located along the
Pacific Coast between Los Angeles and San Diego has been permanently shut
down as reported in The New York Times.There has been much controversy as
Southern California Edison Company pressed to resume the plant’s partial
operation following their safety assessment of the radiation leakage problem
status. What impact this closure may
have on the electric power generation for our future use remains to be seen
though electric company rate increases may be anticipated.Job
losses have become a reality with the first 600 terminations.

Presently we ratepayers are still saddled with costs of San
Onofre so who should pay – customers or stockholders?What about Mitsubishi “…for generator design
and construction flaws…”?These are
questions raised by Morgan Lee, Business Writer at U-T San Diego, which have
significant import to me.Comments noting the California Public
Utilities Commission as “…not being in the business of protecting ratepayers...”
is a view that raises more, but not new, troubling questions.

7 comments:

It's also hot up here in my part of the PNW. It's been humid to go along with it, something that didn't seem to be the norm for us until a few years ago. I dislike the humid heat far more as sweat drips off when doing anything-- or nothing. We finally bought a room a/c unit a couple of years ago and it's the only thing making it tolerable as it takes a lot of the moisture out of the air but requires dumping it every so often. It's worth it though and if we keep getting this kind of thing we may have to consider having the house changed to a heat pump. We only had wood heat for years. Now we have a couple of wall heaters but for years it was fans and open windows at night with closing up during the day. With cats going in and out through their open hatches, it wasn't a perfect solution. Now I'm glad for the a/c unit but as much to pull out that moisture as lower the temperature.

I had amazing results when I stopped allowing anonymous commenters. Someone told me it would work and I was skeptical but it has reduced it to pretty near zero. Blogger was good about catching most of them but they were coming to my email anyway and clogging it up. Now I get next to none but I did lose some commenters who don't want to have an ID. It's too bad because I agree with what you said-- that spam gains them nada.

Interesting to learn of the weather changes you're noting where you are. We, too, had found fans and open windows at night quite sufficient and preferable much of the time years ago. High temps and high humidity levels I've discovered much less tolerance for as I age -- can now appreciate from personal experience a similar reaction my mother described as "tiring - wearing her down." She could no longer work very efficiently, if at all, outside, unlike so many earlier years in her life.

Hope my blog has the same results yours has had since my spam experience mirrors what you describe. Eliminating much of the email clogging would be welcome. Encouraging so thanks for sharing.

When we lived in AZ initially we had only evaporative cooling which I liked except for an occasional few days during 2-3 months of increased humidity. Meanwhile, ever-expanding building around Phoenix-Scottsdale-Tempe creating new residential housing, businesses, additional paved parking lots and more than a few new water-demanding grassy golf courses contributed to a significant increase in the days, weeks, and months of excessive humidity. We changed our evap system to A/C which we enjoyed for only one year before moving to So Cal. Our first few years here were generally pleasant with only a wall A/C unit effectively cooling the kitchen and family room that we needed to use only occasionally. Gradually, even though air pollution was decreasing, other human created conditions -- including our removal of a massive Mulberry tree shading the west side of our house, (my husband developed severe allergic reactions adversely affecting his respiration when the tree bloomed,) -- we installed high efficiency A/C and replaced the old furnace. Total electric and gas operating yearly costs have been the same as what the old gas furnace alone had cost. Our health and comfort level has been greatly enhanced and became appreciated even more when my husband's health declined and as environmental climate changes have occurred from all causes -- man-made and nature. Know of Calif. natives closer to the Pacific Coast near San Diego who added heat and A/C in recent years but had not previously felt that need.

Glad to find this posting from you. As I have probably mentioned here, we are all solar. We have some time to adjust to climate change, but I fear for people elsewhere who do not have the means to deal with the weather to come.

It seems utilities were created with the full realization that they are monopolies by nature and the citizens needed to be protected. Something has gone badly wrong. California is not the only place where the government units that should be protecting us seem to have become advocates for the businesses they are supposed to be regulating.

I have seen on TV some of the temperatures out west and they are so high. Here in Georgia it seems we have the weather from Washington State. Since June 30th it has been raining and it is rarely over the mid 70s – it rained again today – quite unusual.